For all the questions about the Phillies’ near future, one they answered months before the offseason was the ninth inning. They know they’ll enter 2026 with an elite, trustworthy, bat-missing closer in Jhoan Duran.
What they don’t know, what no team ever knows, is how its highest-leverage relievers will perform in the competition and intensity of October baseball, when singular pitches and at-bats are scrutinized to an outsized but rational degree given the stakes.
A couple of relievers who have felt like part of the family to many Phillies fans had experiences over the past month that may unfortunately color the rest of their careers: Orion Kerkering’s errant and unnecessary throw to the plate that ended the NLDS, Jeff Hoffman’s pitch to Miguel Rojas that tied Game 7 of the World Series with two outs to go.